by Roseann Hanson, Art and Science Program Coordinator
Learning to see familiar landscapes in new ways stretches our minds and teaches us new things.
Because we can’t reach our studios and workspaces on the Hill, I’ve been working on multiple ways of visualizing and mapping landscapes; see TumamocSketchbook.com a few weeks ago for a 3D cube visualization of Tumamoc.
It’s been surprising what I’ve learned by trying to visualize Tumamoc in new ways: by poring over dozens of images and maps, I’ve delved into hidden gullies and run my minds-eye over rocky outcrops I didn’t know were there. It’s surprisingly intimate, this visual caressing of a landscape.
For this visualization, I chose an aerial view, from the north and several thousand feet above Tumamoc Hill. I wanted to try to show the topography and sense of its place on the Earth. Then, looking directly overhead, I used an old-school “hachure” method to show gradients between contours, and handmade walnut ink that is water soluble, to make the shading (I’ll do a future tutorial on my method for creating an accurate hachure-style map). It’s interesting to compare the two viewscapes side-by-side.






I hope you enjoy this virtual look at our Tumamoc, while we are all sheltering in other places and dreaming of walking the Hill of the Horned Lizard.